NORWICH – The public defense budget needs to be beefed up following six months of what is being described as “extraordinary” cases tried so far this year.

The Chenango County Public Defender’s office originally budgeted $215,000 for assigned counsel expenses, but requested another $200,000 at a meeting of the Chenango County Finance Committee last week. The full cost of the most recent Peter Wlasiuk murder trial is not yet known, but the Public Defender’s office is asking for $100,000 to cover initial bills.

The department is responsible for hiring private litigators from outside the area whenever the court determines conflicts of interest in representing a defendant. This typically happens when there are personal affiliations, co-defendants in a case or when representing a new defendant puts the Public Defender’s office at odds with the interests of a prior one. For the high-profile Wlasiuk case, the third murder trial against a Chenango County man accused of killing his wife, Administrator Karri Beckwith said the department “had no way of knowing” how to budget for the trial.